Roadmap

In the current roadmap, there are several pieces of distributable software that we will produce:

libfreenect

The libfreenect software includes all code necessary to activate, initialize, and communicate data with the Kinect hardware. This includes drivers and a cross-platform API that works on Windows, Linux, and OS X. The API will have bindings and extensions for these languages/platforms:

OpenKinect Analysis Library

Final name TBD

This library communicates with the OpenKinect API and analyzes the raw information into more useful abstractions. The initial featureset has not been determined, but anything related to the following ideas would go into this library:

hand tracking

skeleton tracking

other depth processing

3D audio isolation coning?

audio cancellation (perhaps a driver feature?)

Point cloud generation

Inertial movement tracking with the built in accelerometer or an attached WiiMote

3d reconstruction

GPU acceleration for any of the above

Clearly this is a large effort and requires cross-discipline coordination with academic experts, developers, testers, and users. It will also take many months or years to complete this effort. It will go faster if you help contribute!

OpenKinect Apps

This includes sample code, tech demos, and any out-of-the-box applications we decide to build and include.